With rising oil prices, gas stations are increasingly subjected to cases of fuel theft. The magnitude of the theft is many countries is quite large and accounts for sizeable monetary losses for the gas stations. In order to counter the problem of fuel theft, gas stations may be fitted with monitoring cameras that record the auto license plate of each vehicle being refueled in order to enable the detection of the respective offender in the event of a theft. This is, however, costly on the one hand and on the other hand (e.g. in cases of the use of false license plates or stolen vehicles) provides no guarantee that the gas station operator will actually be compensated. Specifically, it may be costly to track down the thief using the license plate as an identifier. Legal fees associated with criminal prosecution of the thieves may also be costly. It will be appreciated that theft has also been anticipated in vehicles using other types of fuel (e.g., diesel, ethanol, hydrogen, etc.) or forms of energy such as electricity.
To address at least some of the aforementioned problems a method for preventing fuel theft at a gas station or a charging station for motor vehicles is provided. The method includes determining whether a refueling process or recharging process of a motor vehicle is taking place and activating an emergency operating mode of the motor vehicle until a payment for the refueling process or the recharging process has taken place, the emergency operating mode configured to limit vehicle speed. In this way, the likelihood of fuel or electricity theft from refueling or recharging stations is reduced. As a result, monetary losses corresponding to fuel theft or energy theft at refueling or recharging stations is reduced. It will be appreciated that implementing this type of system in a vehicle may less costly than tracking down and prosecuting fuel thieves via security cameras mounted at the fuel stations.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following detailed description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure. Additionally, the above issues have been recognized by the inventors herein, and are not admitted to be known.
The invention is explained below in detail with reference to the accompanying figures.